How you felt you did vs. how you actually did on the MCAT?

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kkosp2451

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I know this has been asked before, but the last thread I could find goes back to 2010. Just curious...how did you feel you did on your MCAT once you left the building? Did it correlate with how you actually did? Did you do better than you thought or worse?
 
I thought I did kind of meh, and turns out for me, I did exactly meh (average) of what I scored on my last 5 practice MCATs.
 
I did waaaaaaaaaaaay better than I thought.
PS destroyed me and I felt hopeless throughout the whole thing
 
I thought the verbal on my actual test was much easier than the practice tests I took and this was supported by my score, which was the highest I'd ever gotten in verbal.

The science sections it was harder to tell. I felt it went...ok. And then scored 1-2 points lower in each section than I had on practice tests.
 
Thought I totally bombed the verbal section and ended up getting a little higher than I have ever gotten on it in any practice test. Ended up doing 2 points better in total on the real thing when compared to the average of my practice tests.
 
I thought it went alright, I ended up scoring around 3 points less than my AAMC practice tests.
 
I thought I bombed and got a 25-27. Turns out I hit my AAMC FL average exactly (34). It's a pretty good predictor if you take enough of the tests.
 
My feelings were spot on.
BS15 - felt that I killed it. (definitely was feeling 12/13+)
PS14 - same as above, and worse I still remember the 1 question that did me in.
VR8 - OMG. Felt horrible. I remember passages about birds and then something political and history and completely zoning out, getting lost, and having no idea what the author was doing.
 
kkosp2451 said:
I know this has been asked before, but the last thread I could find goes back to 2010. Just curious...how did you feel you did on your MCAT once you left the building? Did it correlate with how you actually did? Did you do better than you thought or worse?
Click to expand...

I felt at the time I hit the submit button that I did much worse than my practice exams, but when I got the score it wasn't as bad as I'd feared.

You just have the believe in yourself, and whatever you do, don't let the void button tempt you.
 
Thought I got around a 31-32... much lower than I actually got. But then again I have a long history of low self-esteem, to be brutally honest. If you've a history of over- or under-estimation, you should take that history into account when formulating your score forecast.
 
I felt like I murdered it. Felt so good I treated myself to a steak dinner (with dessert!) afterward. Then I started psyching myself out because it felt too easy, and the verbal section was really weird that day. Ended up with a 39, so I'd say my feeling immediately after the test was pretty accurate.
 
Felt that I got around 40 but got a 35
 
My first test, I walked out feeling absolutely terrible and ended up with a 30.

On my retest, I skipped out of the building because I felt like I killed it and couldn't wait to get my results back. I ended up scoring a 35.
 
Thought I bombed it and estimated I would get in the high twenties. Got a 37ish which was right around my practice average. I tend to think I've failed everything and do alright tho. I'm sure what this comes down to is simply people's own tendencies.
 
My averages on AAMC practice tests:
PS 10
V 10
Bio 12

How I felt on the real deal:
PS Destroyed me, I mean like the first problem came up and my eyes started welling up with tears
V Felt that it was remarkably easier than my practice tests. Felt I was killing it
Bio Different than what I had studied but not abnormally hard

How I actually did:
PS 9 (turns out a lot of people had trouble too?)
V 9 (shocked the crap out of me especially because I thought I had done so well)
Bio 10 (again shocked the crap out of me because I had been at least 11+ on like every practice test)
 
kkosp2451 said:
I know this has been asked before, but the last thread I could find goes back to 2010. Just curious...how did you feel you did on your MCAT once you left the building? Did it correlate with how you actually did? Did you do better than you thought or worse?
Click to expand...


I would guess that time wouldn't change the responses. You're gauging feelings- you'll find 'em all.
 
When I left that exam room I was pretty shaken. First if all, while I'm usually not a nervous test taker, it took me a good 15 minutes to really calm down and think clearly. The PS was also harder and more calculation intensive than any other AAMC PS I had taken, and the verbal passages were so incredibly dull I had to take a 5 minute break in the middle just to gather myself and slap myself a few times. Plus, I had much less time left on every section than I had been used to and barely had the chance to check all my answers before time ran out.

That being said, I knew I almost always perform better on the real deal of high-stakes exams (almost 400 points better than practice on the SAT, usually a full grade better on previous years' finals vs my own, etc). So all in all, I thought I'd lose some from having a hard time with the exam and gain some from my "test mode mentality" boost and come out around my average. I scored 3 points above my total average and right around the average of my last few AAMCs, which I had taken quite a bit more seriously than the others. Apparently my practice-to-test trend remained pretty consistent.

I think, as others have mentioned, it's important to know what kind of test taker you are. Do you get nervous and make silly mistakes? Do you get amped up and perform better? Do you tend to rush and miss important details? Do you often overthink questions on the real exam and screw up? Are you a nervous answer-switcher? Know yourself to control your unhelpful habits and to try to fairly gauge yourself afterwards.


NuttyEngDude said:
There's a large part of me that still wants to retake it :bang:

Do not misconstrue though, I have an acceptance so I wont..... but there's some hurt pride....
Click to expand...

Since you've been accepted, you can always redeem yourself on the STEP 1! 👍
 
Felt like a 28 got a 34. Wahoo. I'm pretty sure everyone has different feelings after the exam that mean different things
 
In the post test haze I pondered voiding my exam

(I could just hear tswizzle belting "don't know bout you, but I'm feeling 22")

Shook it off as nerves and kept the score

Guess Taylor was feeling that 38 instead 🙂
 
My plan was to get a 15 in one section and 10s in the other two. I ended up with a 9P/10V/14B.

I was crushed and didn't get out of bed for a week.

I walked out of the exam feeling like I got a 5 in the PS section. Man that section was brutal.
 
For anyone who has taken the MCAT: Should practice questions look like a foreign language to a freshman or am I doing it wrong? :laugh: I was glancing through the mcat 2015 guide and they had practice questions and I couldn't really comprehend a lot of it 😕
 
I studied a bit for PS and less so for the BS, and did no verbal prep. Felt like I aced the P, missed easy free standing q's on the B, and did best of all on the V. 12P 10B 8V. I still don't know if I'm happy or sad about my score, but I'm not retaking it. Meh

Just make sure that you prep for the verbal I guess.
 
Spitphire said:
For anyone who has taken the MCAT: Should practice questions look like a foreign language to a freshman or am I doing it wrong? :laugh: I was glancing through the mcat 2015 guide and they had practice questions and I couldn't really comprehend a lot of it 😕
Click to expand...
As a freshman you haven't completed any of the pre-reqs yet, so your question is really no different than "should Japanese sound like a foreign language to someone who's never studied Japanese?"
 
TheShaker said:
I thought I bombed and got a 25-27. Turns out I hit my AAMC FL average exactly (34). It's a pretty good predictor if you take enough of the tests.
Click to expand...

+1, but with different numbers. AAMC FL average was 39.5. I thought I messed up the real thing as I got more and more tired and was hoping for a 30-33. Ended up with my AAMC FL average... you know, rounded accordingly.
 
OCDOCDOCD said:
As a freshman you haven't completed any of the pre-reqs yet, so your question is really no different than "should Japanese sound like a foreign language to someone who's never studied Japanese?"
Click to expand...
LOL good point. I felt slightly overwhelmed when I looked at it :laugh:
 
The two weeks before I took the real deal I had taken about four practice exams, and before that I had taken at least six or seven. I was averaging 32-34. When I left the test I felt very "meh" about it, but knew not to void; some parts I knew I did well on, others I wasn't sure about. Wound up getting a 36 much to my surprise.
 
kkosp2451 said:
I know this has been asked before, but the last thread I could find goes back to 2010. Just curious...how did you feel you did on your MCAT once you left the building? Did it correlate with how you actually did? Did you do better than you thought or worse?
Click to expand...

Felt like I got a 33-37. My AAMC average was 34 with a 32-38 range.

Final score was a 35.
 
Self studied with some books. Took only one free AAMC test two weeks before the real thing and got a PS/VR/BS 11/9/9. Freaked out, crammed that last two weeks. Anxiety levels were very high at beginning of the test, found myself struggling to balance equations in PS, and had a 5 question passage left with 3 minutes to go, so I skimmed and went with my gut! After settling down I felt fine the rest of the way. Somehow got a 13(!)/11/10. Guess my gut is smarter than my brain.
 
The test is designed with a hard/easy/moderate section (as far as I know) so everyone will have a section they feel like they bombed. I thought I did absolutely terrible on PS (actually didn't even finish..was expecting an 8 or 9), ok on VR, and had so much time left over for BS I actually took the whole test twice. I ended up with a 10/12/14 which was near my overall practice test average. Your individual sections might not be near your practice averages because it just depends on what the "hard" section is for your testing day. Or you might rock the whole thing who knows.
 
Felt pretty good immediately post test, and then started second guessing myself. My self-predicted range was 34-37. ended up getting a 41 which absolutely blew me away. (My highest score ever) I had been consistently making low 30s with the Kaplan exams in the weeks prior, but on AAMC tests I started with a 37 and floated around that number a lot.

I guess my takeaway is...don't trust any feelings after the exam. And don't trust Kaplan numbers haha.
 
Like most people, I felt like I did worse than my actual ability.

Like most people, I did better than I thought, and right around my AAMC averages.
 
AAMC practice test average was a 30.8, roughly 12 PS / 10 BS / 9 VR. I thought I got destroyed on the actual test: PS wasn't bad, BS sucked, and VR was really bad, like almost to the point of flipping out during the test. Actual score was a 12 PS / 9 BS / 8 VR. It's a crap score, but it was good enough to get me a couple acceptances.
 
Burla said:
I did waaaaaaaaaaaay better than I thought.
PS destroyed me and I felt hopeless throughout the whole thing
Click to expand...
Did you feel like you guessed on the whole physics section? I feel like I did horrible on the 6/13 physics section... and I was PREPARED. But it was literally like a physics expert test... and someone else walking out said they thought it was impossible too. I'm just wondering because I feel like I was wildly guessing everywhere and probably walked away with a 5, if I'm lucky, on the physics section
 
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Oh my.... My verbal passages were filled with some philosophical jumbo mumbo and boring topic like different types of painting stroke or something. I don't remember exactly but I almost felt sleep. I thought I did really really really bad but I only did really bad. Thank God
 
NettleHead said:
Did you feel like you guessed on the whole physics section? I feel like I did horrible on the 6/13 physics section... and I was PREPARED. But it was literally like a physics expert test... and someone else walking out said they thought it was impossible too. I'm just wondering because I feel like I was wildly guessing everywhere and probably walked away with a 5, if I'm lucky, on the physics section
Click to expand...

I felt the same exact way, 5/17. I was unsure of at least 10 questions, and stupidly ran out of time and left the last 4 questions blank. I wanted to cry after PS. A lot of people who just got their scores from the 5/8 exam said to have felt the same way yet scored much higher than anticipated...hoping there's another big curve with our exams!
 
Thought I bombed everything. Legitimately, everything. Walked out of that test praying I got above a 25. The only thing I thought I did well on was verbal - verbal turned out to be lowest section with an 8. The sciences I thought I bombed turned out to be 13 PS, 14 BS.
 
BrCo said:
Thought I bombed everything. Legitimately, everything. Walked out of that test praying I got above a 25. The only thing I thought I did well on was verbal - verbal turned out to be lowest section with an 8. The sciences I thought I bombed turned out to be 13 PS, 14 BS.
Click to expand...
thank you so much for your reply. What do you mean by "thought you bombed" though, like were you guessing hard core? haha ... I felt like I went in there and sat for a Spanish exam, with the Physics, and actually got Latin...
 
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DrPibble said:
I felt the same exact way, 5/17. I was unsure of at least 10 questions, and stupidly ran out of time and left the last 4 questions blank. I wanted to cry after PS. A lot of people who just got their scores from the 5/8 exam said to have felt the same way yet scored much higher than anticipated...hoping there's another big curve with our exams!
Click to expand...
Well I truly hope you did well Dr. Pibble! Thank you so much for your response. And by the way, I also stupidly ran out of time and thought there would be 44 questions instead of 52, even though I've done a ton of practice exams. I answered the rest of the questions but was banking on "B or C" for everything.
 
Left expecting a 38 (couple points lower than my practice test average).

Ended up with a 38.
 
I left feeling like I probably got a 20. Verbal seemed easy-ish, but both PS and BS made me want to cry. I ended up with a 29 (8 PS/11 VR/10 BS). Never in my life have I been so happy for such a mediocre score. That test seriously psyched me out.
 
What about how many you know you got wrong versus what you actually scored? That's what I'm curious about. I have a few "100% sure I got this wrong" questions across the sections (one of which was so dumb I could jump off a cliff... literally thought the question couldn't possibly be that easy so I picked something stupid instead of the obviously right answer).
 
Considered walking out of my test halfway through and voiding. Ended up deciding to just finish it. Walked out feeling crushed and defeated. Ended up scoring very close to my AAMC average.


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NettleHead said:
thank you so much for your reply. What do you mean by "thought you bombed though" like were you guessing hard core? haha ... I felt like I went in there and sat for a Spanish exam, with the Physics, and actually got Latin...
Click to expand...

I felt like I was making a load of small stupid mistakes on physical sciences. On Biology I felt like I was "guessing" on almost every single question - this really shocked me because on all AAMC practices I felt like I didn't have to guess much. There were like two passages on PS where I was convinced I had gotten every question wrong.
 
I thought I did terribly when I walked out, especially since I was taking a lot longer than during my practice exams and I forgot that there were discrete questions after the last passage on BS, so I had to to answer all of them in about a minute....

I thought it was definitely more difficult than practice

But in the end, it worked out and I scored two points better than my practice tests.
 
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